Dangerous and Moving
by Firefly Kisses
Summary: On a spaceship Labyrinth, Raphael fights for survival with an unlikely charge.
1. Chapter 1

The air stank like a toxic smog, an appalling mix of urine and blood that drowned out and killed all other scents. The combination was like fermented fear. It scalded the sensitive orifices of Raphael's nose and eyes and penetrated the thick death-like sleep he had been in. He grimaced groggily under the stink, jerking his hand to cover his nose only to find himself firmly restrained. It took him a moment, shaking his head as though to throw the sticky cobwebs in his mind loose, to realize he was strung up against a wall. Both hands were tightly clasped in metal brackets and stretched high over his head, and his feet were equally cuffed on the ankles. It effectively kept him stationary as he strained hard to test their , he wasn't budging. Dammit.

Finally his mind caught up to his body, and disgruntled by his inability to move, the first thing his thoughts could conjure was, _'What the hell...?'_ Last thing he remembered was sitting on the rooftop of Aprils apartment with the guys sharing a pizza. There was no Clan activity, and the Foot had been quiet for ages. It had been a pretty peaceful night. He opened his eyes, but the depth of his vision was pulsating and too blurry to make out anything and his head thrummed with the quiver of his pulse.

His hearing however was sharp and reliable, so as he closed his eyes again to try and clear his vision he concentrated on what sounds were going on around him. There were a lot of them, and each one more disturbing than the last. There was fearful whimpering, inconsolable sobbing, and what sounded like a mans voice on the other end of this room screaming his damn head off! Ugh, if his fists were free he'd shove one down his throat to shut him up! Beyond that he concentrated, and he could hear helpless pleading. If he'd been a lesser man, he'd have been unnerved, but living the life he did and taking down the dirtiest thugs New York City had to offer, his reaction to the sounds were simple. Lives were in danger and that meant there were skulls to be bashed, a prospect he was eager to dive into!

"Hey Leo, I think Raph's coming around!" Came the all too loud voice of his youngest brother.

"It does look like he's stopped drooling doesn't it?" Came a wiley quip from the eldest.

Raphael growled agitatedly, "Keep your damn voice down Leo, m'heads killin me!" At least he knew where his brothers were.

"The headache will pass pretty quick," He heard Donatello explain helpfully, "it's just the drugs wearing off."

'Drugs?' He wondered, turning that news over in his head for a second. That explained a lot. Not only the lack of memory but the odd haze he felt like he waded through. Also, they were ninjas. Sneaking up on them and attacking directly wasn't something easily accomplished, but drugging them?

He cracked open his eyes again, finding gratefully that his vision was steadily returning. They were in a circular metal paneled room, the walls lined with upright booths with metal restraints hanging from above and anchored below. Half the present booths had occupants chained within, some struggling to get free, some resigned, others angry, and many weeping. Raph let his eyes sweep the room, scowling as everything came into focus.

The room wouldn't appear so daunting, seeing as it was essentially a jail, if it were not for two things. One, the floors were filthy, smeared with streaks of blood and sticky with urine and other varieties of bodily waste. Yuck. That explained the smell. It was obvious someone couldn't be bothered to clean anything up around here. Second, there was a very distinct stench reaching his nose that could only be the decay of a dead body. It took only a moment of searching to identify where it was coming from, spying in a booth a bloated and blistering body of some indistinguishable figure about to burst it's decomposed contents onto the already disgusting floor.

He looked to his left, glad to see that his brothers looked unharmed. They looked to be just as confused as him and were surveying the room, just as he had.

"Wow, nice place." He muttered sarcastically, spitting to the side to try and get a taste he had inhaled off his tongue. Well, he had always thought it was impossible to taste a smell. Living in a sewer made him feel entitled to make such a claim. Now he knew better.

Mikey made a sour face and whined, "Yeah, real nice, Raph. The pee makes it real homey."

"Not to mention those decorative splatters of blood, very tasteful." Donnie added in disgust.

Leo looked about ready to be sick. "Can you guys stop before I add my own personal touch to it?"

"If you ask me, the room could use a bit more color!" Donatello offered with a chuckle, making Leo cringe queasily.

Raph laughed. Their bantering in tense situations always had a tendency to relax them and keep them from caving under pressure.

"Careful Leo," he warned, "if you do, Mikey might want to as well, and I dunno how all of us would handle that kinda chain reaction!"

Mikey belched unappetizingly and groaned, squinting his eyes shut before he shouted, "Okay okay okay, can we stop being gross for one minute and figure out where the hell we are!"

When steel stomach Mikey said it was time to stop being gross, the brothers knew how dire the situation was.

Leo wrenched his face upwards, looking very seriously to Donatello. "Okay then let's start with the basics. I'm coming up empty here. I don't remember a thing."

"Me either." Raphael agreed.

Mikey chimed in. "Ditto."

Donatello nodded, eyes scrutinizing the scene before him as his brothers all practically leaned in, waiting for him to begin to articulate his no doubt racing string of thoughts. It took him several long seconds to begin, and when he did, they all knew his mouth would run as fast as his agile mind. They just hoped they would be able to absorb it all.

"What I'm getting is that we've been abducted and judging by the way we roused and have no memory of anything before hand, it was administered by someone who knew exactly what they were doing and didn't want a direct confrontation. It would also explain why we're being restrained and why our weapons have been taken. Next, just by looking around us and listening to the others here, I believe we're part of a small collection of extraterrestrials being accrued and if my ears deceive me and I don't believe they are, I'm hearing engine propulsion but there's no problems with equilibrium as one might have in a plane or jet or-"

Raph rolled his eyes and barked, "Dumb it down!"

Donnie wrinkled his face slightly, and bluntly said, "I think we're on an alien space ship and part of a small variety of collected species."

Leo looked around them again, his face showing how troubled he was. With the rest of them remaining cool, Raph couldn't help but want to tell him to get it together. It wasn't the worst mess they'd been in.

"I've been listening to them talking, and I don't understand a damn thing any of them are saying, but they all sound pretty spooked." He was eying a small group of white scaled multi-limbed snakes who seemed particularly unsettled to be where they were. "You think they know something that we don't?"

At the mention of it, Raph payed closer attention to the cries of the other aliens around them, and quickly found Leo was right. There were ones that looked humanoid, like a small group of about five that by all appearances seemed human aside from tall fuzzy ears and matching tails. Another group was similar, but instead of the ears and tails they had wings and the maws of a bird of prey with teeth. Some looked confused and scared, others looked downright frantic.

Donnie nodded to himself as he tried to piece more of the puzzle together. "I want to say just looking around this cess pool would make anyone freak out, but I've gotta admit," Worriedly, he met Leos gaze, "I'm starting to agree. I think they know why we're here."

Leo's cerulean gaze went icy with resolve and narrowed. "We need to try and ask them, figure out what's going on."

Mikey had been relatively quiet as he squeamishly stood on his tip toes. He had apparently just discovered that the floor of his booth was tacky. He suddenly piped up. "This is fifty shades of nasty man! I think someone took a leak where I'm standing!"

All three brothers suddenly looked at him accusingly, making the youngest male freeze.

"I didn't say it was me!" He cried incredulously, his expressive words making his freckles bounce on his cheeks! "Why do you always gang up on me like that!"

"If you recall Mikey, none of us said anything!" Donnie had a hard time hiding his grin as he said it though.

"Yeah but you looked at me in that tone of voice!" He said defensively, huffing and resigning himself to just stand in the grime underfoot.

All three brothers sighed and hung their heads at his choice of wording. They wondered if he even realized what he'd just said himself.

Leonardo tested the metal coil that held the bracket holding his wrists, grunting a few times as he lifted his entire weight up onto it to test its strength. It firmly held fast. "I know one thing for sure." He said confidently, sending a smirk to his brothers. "We're here together, which means we're at our best! If we stay focused and on target there's nothing we can't-!"

Raphael let himself hang limp and interrupted him with a groan, "For fucks sake, Leo, will you stop quoting that damn space show!"

"Excuse me for trying to motivate my team!"

"There's no excuse for stupidity LeoTARDo!" Raph snapped back, feeling cheered on when Mikey snorted in laughter at the name calling. Even Donnie was chortling.

"Cut it out you two!" Donnie said with finality, still hiding the residual grin on his face, "Besides,he's right in the long run. We stick together and figure this out."

"Okay, then trying to communicate with other prisoners is phase one!" The blue masked terrapin said with certainty. "Got it?"

"Got it!" The others joined in unison.

Raph looked to his right side for the first time, a bit irritated by the numbness in his hands but doing a good job of ignoring it. He had to see if there was anyone on the other side of him. Immediately next to him, there was no one, just an empty space and the sickly rusty brown color of old dried blood. One booth further down however, there was one of those humanoid fox aliens. He found his eyes wandering her from head to toe, not out of any real interest, but out of curiosity. He'd shared space with alien life before, and usually the experience was fun. Lots and lots of good old fashioned brawling and ample opportunity to test his strength and skill! The Kraang sure had been fun to smash up!

This little slip of a thing was completely different. She didn't look like she'd hold her own against even the weakest of foes. She wasn't very tall, reaching maybe his mid chest in height. Her red furred ears were drooped low back against her head and her fluffy matching tail was tucked between her knees in a curve. She had long burgundy red hair that curtained her face as her head hung forward. She didn't seem hurt despite her tense posture, though. He heard her breathing, and watched her shoulders rising and falling as her breaths came and went. It was slow and unsteady, her body shaking with more than its share of anxiety. Those little hands were tightly clenched on the very ends of slender pale skinned arms. She wore two pieces of clothing, apparently cut from the same cloth as one another. One was a green skirt that looked like it had been stitched together by hand. It came up to the underside of her tail and was secured with a knot above it allowing the excess to fall down to her knees. The top looked like it was made from what was left of it, wrapped around her neck, crisscrossed over her breasts, and tied at the small of her back. The cloth had some white diamond patterning to it.

Overall she was unimpressive and tiny, and Raph began to wonder what would happen to her in a place like this if something wasn't done. She obviously couldn't defend herself like he and his brothers could. A spark flew in his mind suddenly and Leo's worry made so much more sense to him. His brother wasn't as much worried about what would happen to the team, but rather, what was going to happen to the other people caught here. Heh, he should have known that boyscout would be two steps ahead, thinking about everyone else here and not just of themselves. Raph felt the familiar twist of envy over Leonardo's insight. He snorted to himself, rationalizing that he had come to that conclusion too, it just took him a minute longer.

He glanced back to his brothers, intending to bring this up, but they were focused on trying to communicate with someone on the opposite side and having very little success. He decided to give it a go with this chick.

"Hey, you in there?" He asked, leaning as far forward as he could to try to get her attention. She didn't even twitch. "If you can understand me doll, say somethin."

At first she didn't seem to react and just hung there against her risen arms, breathing. He stared at her boredly, waiting for her to react.

Nothing.

With mounting annoyance he grunted, looking past her to anyone else that might be nearby, but there was no one that was within comfortable conversation distance.

"Kya terrack." Came a voice. It wasn't the shrinking tone he had expected, but rather, a soft but resolute whisper.

He looked back at the girl, startled to see that her gaze had risen to his. She had an exceptionally human looking face, complete with a few bold freckles and pouty pink lips turned down in a serious frown, but what grabbed him were the very bright golden yellow spheres that drilled into his own, very canine in nature.

"What?" He said dumbly. Crap, he wasn't suited for this kind of thing! He was a warrior of ninjitsu, not the dog whisperer! He tried to get Donnies attention.

Her head canted slightly to the side, her expression quizzical as she spoke again, louder this time. "Keh-Yah-Tee-Rack." She was saying it slower as though he'd magically understand her language just because she broke it down.

His brow twitched, trying desperately to be patient. "Yeaaaah, I don't understand what you're sayin."

She was better at discerning what he was saying though, because she wrinkled her nose at him and blew an offending strand of hair out of her face in frustration.

She jerked her head towards the center of the room, and he looked.

"Terrack." She then gestured up, then to the side. "Terrack." He caught on.

"Terrack." He repeated. "Is that was these goons are called, the guys who have us?"

She sucked her lower lip in between her teeth and bit with slightly elongated canines. Looking back out into the room with those moon-like eyes of hers, her brow lowered in concentration and making her fluffy bangs ruffle against the movement. She was thinking. Her attention shifted back to him quickly though with renewed interest. He smirked a bit, finding he liked her determination to communicate.

"Kya-" she restated patiently, and made a hard jerk in her bonds with ready fists.

His electric green eyes narrowed on those tightly clenched fingers. Now that was a language Raph understood! He grinned, nodding in approval. She meant fight! He made a fist and jerked it too, and her face brightened as she yipped what he assumed was an affirmative!

"Oh I hear ya sister." He purred in his chest. Damn, she may be a scrawny little thing but she was feisty! "Fight the Terrack!"

"Fight Terrack!" She mimicked him boldly. It was like throwing kindling on a fire and the anxiety she had been feeling burned away into something far more useful!

Though communication with him was still weak she understood body language much more clearly than words and his was an open book to her. His body was taut without any measure of relaxation, his stance wide to offer him a solid center of gravity, and his head was lowered slightly to emphasize the strong broadness of his shoulders. She also smelled heavy waves of testosterone coming off him, making her conclude his aggressive posture was more likely an itch to be free and battle as a virile male than to escape and struggle for ones life. It was a difference she appreciated in a setting like this.

"What's your name?"

She recognized his words as a question, but she didn't know what he was asking. She bit on her lip again, giving him an apologetic stare.

He took a breath. Yeah, he knew he hadn't given her much to go on when he asked, but hell his hands were quite literally tied! It wasn't like he could point to himself and make monkey talk with her! His ire was up and finally he called for his brother.

"Donnie!"

The purple masked ninja looked his way instantly, his mahogany eyes instantly discerning why Raph sounded so impatient. He was trying to communicate with someone and he had a hard enough time doing that in his native tongue! What would these guys do without him?

"Need help?" He offered, leaning forward ot get a look at the girl. His heart sank a bit when he saw how small she was and his mind went along the same track that Raphaels had earlier.

"I'd think that was obvious." He mumbled. "I'm pretty sure what I've gotten so far is that she wants to 'fight the Terrack'. She said 'Kya', and that meant fight. Terrack is I think whatever's got us. Or where we are, hell if I know."

Hearing something she understood she piped up with a soft yip that sounded like, "Ki." Her tail unconsciously began to wag a little. It payed to be a little optimistic.

Donatello studiously met her gaze. "Let's keep this simple then. Names come first. Say yours, then I'll say mine. Hopefully she'll get the picture."

"Raph."

"Don."

She looked back and forth between them, and they both could see the cogs grinding in her head to grasp the message trying to be conveyed. They each repeated it for emphasis and then gestured to each other, saying one anothers names. That seemed to do the trick.

"Inali!" she declared proudly with a lift of her chin and a smile that reached her eyes. "Don," She looked at the brother before looking back to the other. "Raph. Ki!"

"'Ki' means yes." Donnie observed, and repeated it with an affirmative nod as he tried out her name. "Ki, Inali!" He jerked his head towards Leo and Mikey who were still bickering about trying to communicate with a humanoid lizard that could apparently only hiss and churr. "Leo. Mike."

"Ki!"

Donnie laughed a bit, feeling a bit accomplished himself. "Okay, we have a basis for communication! Way to go Raph, she's a smart one!"

Raph leaned back and looked up at the ceiling in amusement. "Yeah, small dogs usually are, right?"

One of Inali's ears twitched then both went perfectly erect atop her head. Her attention was suddenly on the door on the far end of the room, watching it expectantly. Steadily her optimism looked like it was being siphoned out of her. Even though her expression remained rebellious, her eyes told of worry and she backed a bit further into her booth.

She looked at Raphael, her eyes searching his meaningfully in a way that made his gut clench.

"Raph?" came her anxious whisper. "Kya Terrack?"

The change in her was unsettling him. She'd gone from a confident and spunky little pup to a shrinking child right before his eyes. Leo was right and it gave him no pleasure to admit it. Inali knew what was going on here and she was spooked.

Would he fight the Terrack? How else could he answer her?

He met her eyes with a sidelong glance and smirked fearlessly, hoping his courage would reassure her. "Ki, Inali!" He said with brazen conviction. "Kya Terrack!"

The doors swung open with a heavy metallic bang and the room was suddenly alive with panic and confusion. Lanky robots lumbered in and began to approach the closest prisoners, their wails of terror falling on deaf ears.

Donnie jerked back where he stood, eyes wide in shock. His brothers all had similar reactions. The robots were bloodstained droids, mindlessly carrying out a preprogrammed mission. They emotionlessly surveyed the creatures before them before one reached out. It's vice like grasp shot forward around the neck of one of the winged aliens. It's wing had been twisted and hung uselessly at it's side and though there was a knowing look in the poor mans eyes, it didn't stop him from screaming as the machine began to slowly pull him by the neck. The agonized screams struck to the moral core of the mutant brothers with the violence of a lightning strike, but bound and helpless, all they could do was watch. The mans throat made a sickening crunch as the airways collapsed under the pressure, only a gurgle able to make it past now. The female beside him began to scream and thrash wildly, in a fit of mindless hysterics as her still living mate was ripped from his still fastened bonds and thrown to the floor like garbage.

Leo jerked forward, demanding for the droids to stop, afraid of what his eyes might be subjected to if this wasn't halted in the next few seconds, and Donnie cried for Mikey to close his eyes.

Raphael with wide horrified eyes watched the most inhuman display his eyes had ever seen, only to notice that Inali had hung her head once more and had resumed shaking. The screams of the witnesses around them didn't stop as he observed her, the snapping and crunching of wet flesh and bone unfortunately all too clear in this void of confusion. He heard the sick splash of one of his brothers vomiting beside him, and he closed his eyes and turned away from the scene.

"Who the hell would do something like this?" He heard Leo hiss in barely restrained anger. "This is soulless and twisted! It's sick! _WHO_?!"

Inali whimpered, offering only one explanation.

_"Terrack."_


	2. Chapter 2

No one could watch. Through the screams and the helpless wails of lives ending Raph and all three of his brothers had closed their eyes and silently stood with bowed heads, bearing witness to a massacre that seemed like it would never end. There was nothing they could do, and their wrists were now raw and bleeding from trying when the horror had all started. Now, they stood resigned but determined. The first chance they had, action would be taken.

"They're singling out the weak or injured." Donatello spoke, his words thinly veiling the emotion in his voice. He had developed a habit long ago to ramble information when he got nervous. It was the most obvious when he was trying to talk to that red haired angel, April O'niel, but there were times when his nerves just got the better of him and the only way for to cope was to hear himself talk. It usually annoyed his brothers, but right now, it gave them something to focus on instead of the dying throes of the helpless. "They're-" He gulped hard, eyes tightly wrenched shut, "-systematically surveying everyone here and holding them to some sort of standard. Separating the wheat from the chaff so to speak. If one falls short they're eliminated. They're acting on programming, they're not sentient so there's no thought or emotion, just action. Which means there is someone out there who put it into them to do this. Uh- I guess what's next is we figure out why they're keeping the rest of us alive."

The sound of grating metal footsteps approached them, and Raph lifted his chin to glare at the approaching droid. His teeth clenched and he could hear his molars grinding in his ears as he seethed venomously. Up close, he could see the robots more clearly. They had a skeletal design, wide shoulders, and a single red optical orb positioned in the center of it's metal cranium. Maybe Donnie would describe it more effectively, but all it looked like to him was something to smash to bits.

"Just try it." He spat challengingly as it came to a pause before him and his brothers, daring it to just try and make a move against his family. Even if his wrists snapped off from being pulled from his bonds he'd gladly pummel this piece of shit with whatever stubs he'd have left!

The robot of course didn't react to his jab. It walked past and stopped a few steps away.

In front of Inali.

It reached for her, and though her tail was tucked and she shrank away from its touch, she bared her teeth spiritedly with the most feral yowl she could muster.

"Oh no..." He heard Donatello breathe as they all realized what was about to happen.

Raphael's heart slammed against his ribs a few times as adrenaline began to enter his bloodstream. "Oh Shit-**NO**!"He yanked so hard on the chains above his head that the metal bowed with a mighty creak, crimson trickles of blood tracing the muscles of his arms as the cuffs sliced deep into his wrists!

"Raph!" Mikey shouted at the sight of him bleeding, "Leo, stop him!"

"Raphael, there's nothing you can do!"

"They're gonna kill her!" He strained harder as the robot took her out of her booth by the base of her tail, her body twisting and flipping around in it's iron grasp trying to get free! The robots other appendage came and caught her bruisingly by the back of the neck and shoved her into the protruding divider between the booths. She was pinned, her cheek flattened on the cold surface facing Raphael as it adjusted it's grip. Her golden eyes anchored desperately onto his and wouldn't look away. Moisture was rising in them rapidly.

Her little voice called to him. "Raph?"

_"Inali!"_ Donnie called, trying to keep her looking at them and keep her calm, but Raphael's outraged screams were drowning him out.

The red masked turtle felt the hot anger bubbling acidicly through him, fueling his effort to get free! Watching faceless strangers die was bad enough but he was acquainted with this kid! He couldn't just watch her die! There had to be a way to get out!

The bot rose it's free hand, the claw opening and a tube that looked suspiciously like a gun elongating from the palm. Her eyes grew wide as she felt it brush the back of her neck.

_"Raph!"_ She cried more urgently, her face going white as a sheet!

Leo had to look away as did Mikey, and Donnie closed his eyes as his name came tumbling from her lips next.

_**"RAPHIEL?!"**_ The seizing panic in her voice was overwhelming Raphael's senses and he roared as the cannon lit up! No! He couldn't fail, he had to stop this from happening somehow! He was Raphael, son and student of the great Master Splinter! He was not a helpless bystander! Her eyes squinted closed and she screamed something incoherent in her native tongue and then the shot was fired!

The resounding boom of the blast echoed in the room, and Raph suddenly froze, staring at what he had been convinced would be a bloody mess. Instead, Inali's eyes opened again, her body trembling and expression confused. The bots canon pulled back from her neck, revealing that adhered to the nape was a metal disk, it's talons buried into her now swelling and reddening skin. There was a light on the back of it which blinked a pale blue every few seconds. It looked like it hurt, but it was a lot better than the death that they had been expecting. The machine lifted her limp form back into her booth and resecured her bonds.

Inali did nothing, still recoiling from shock.

A shaky breath shuddered from Donatello's lungs. He hadn't realized he'd been holding his breath. His mind already churning to figure out what had just happened, he looked at the others in the room. The bots were taking out the others of her species and implanting those discs onto them as well.

He turned abruptly and demanded, "Mikey, lean forward and let me see your neck!"

Raph, finally snapped out of his own shock and turned to look as well. Mikey obeyed and leaned his head as far forward as he could manage. It was hard to make out, but covered by the upper lip of his shell, there was indeed a disc on him. A quick assessment of one another proved that they all had them.

"It must have happened while were were still under!" Donnie speculated.

"But what are they?" Leo asked.

"I have no way of figuring that out from here!" Donatello said, "But the light flashing makes me thing it's transmitting something."

"I don't feel it." Mikey said, rolling his head back as if to try to figure out why he hadn't noticed it before.

"If we felt it, we would have noticed it before."

Raphael let his brothers talk it out, closing his eyes and trying to breath through the adrenaline wave that was still fueling his body. He knew he was bleeding, but right now he didn't feel the wounds. It always happened this way when his anger got the best of him. He's pummeled robots, punched walls, and more but his body always remained numb throughout the thrumming surge of energy. It wasn't until he'd calmed sufficiently that he felt the wounds he sustained.

There was also another aspect of his rage that worked in his favor. He tended to be stronger and as his eyes looked up at the metal cord holding the brackets overhead, he saw the heavy pucker his straining had created in the metal. He smirked to himself, feeling pretty pleased with himself that he'd managed it.

"Rapheil."

Inali's hesitant call to him stole his attention and he managed to relax a little in spite of how she mispronounced his name. The pup was okay so maybe attempting communication again was an option. For the moment though, she appeared distracted. Her eyes were following his arms and he figured she was just now noticing that his struggling had injured him. Somehow the blood made him proud. They boasted the lengths he'd go to for the right cause, they declared his strength and stamina, and having a pretty girl take notice pleasurably stroked his already sizable ego. What could he say, he was a genuine badass!

"We should try to talk to her again." Donatello said in an exhale, stating what Raph had already determined on his own.

"Eureka," Raph snorted. "Thank goodness I have you here to tell me how to wipe my ass Donnie! You're a true genius!" How could someone so smart so consistently state the obvious like an epiphany was beyond him!

Donnie, affronted, retorted, "If we had time to make wise cracks about personal hygiene, trust me Raph, I'd be delighted to have a nice tete-a-tete with you, but the crutch of the matter is we don't have that luxury!"

"We'd all be delighted for some tit and tits Donnie but I can't see how bringing that up is helpful right now. Get your head in the game, man."

Raph felt a swell of satisfaction as his gap toothed brother blushed intensely at his rebuttal.

"Wait, what are you guys talking about?" Mikey called with interest.

"All you heard was 'tit', Mikey." Leo said, trying to cover over the turn in conversation. "Come on Raph, we need to be more productive than this."

"Hey, don't get mad at me, Donnie's the one who can't stop thinking about boobs." He said with a shrug. Another log on the fire and now to sit back and watch the blaze!

"Raphael I swear if I weren't bound head and foot-"

"You'd try to hit me with your walking stick? Try it and see how that works for you!" Snarkily, Raph quirked the brows over his bright green eyes, "That is if you can get your mind off of Aprils tit's long enough to actually give me a fight worth my time!"

Flustered, Donnie could only stammer angrily through a spreading redness, not forming anything coherant even as Mikey chimed in his two cents.

"You can't blame the guy Raph, April's got a habit of wearing that tight little yellow shirt and it's kinda distracting!"

Even Leo had to give a nervous laugh and nod. "Yeah, she's been wearing that shirt for quite some time now. Two years? I think it's her favorite."

"And she's only getting bigger too. Someone should tell her."

"Why? That shirt makes her boobs look great!" Mikey smiled and closed his eyes dreamily. "So perky and full!"

Donatello broke his bewildered silence at that, shouting wildly and without reserve, **"Don't you talk about my sweet little Princess that way!"**

"Why, does it get you frustrated?" Raph jabbed mercilessly, "You gonna drop outta your shell?"

Leo groaned, "Okay, that's enough, besides-" He gestured to Inali who was staring at them, mystified. "It's not polite conversation for mixed company."

Raph just snorted, "It's not like she can understand us."

"Yes I can."

Stunned, all four looked at the girl with wide eyes as their minds came to a screeching halt.

Mikey grinned happily, Donni averted his gaze with a blush, Leo blinked slowly a few times, and Raph stared dumbly.

Enthusiastically, Mikey spoke up, apparently oblivious to the awkward silence, "Whoa, she just learned English guys!"

Clearing his throat uncomfortably, Donatello tried to reason on the matter. "Actually Mikey, I think it's more likely that these discs we have been given have something to do with it. Perhaps a universal translator of some sort."

"A what?" the youngest asked.

"A device that breaks down multiple languages into one basic format. Like on Earth most all language have root meanings and derivatives, language having branched out into many forms from one or more original di...al...ects-?" He paused, seeing he was loosing his brothers attention. He sighed. "To our ears, when she speaks we hear English. To her, we probably sound like we're speaking her native tongue. It's the device that does all the hard work of breaking it all down."

"Like in Space Heros?" Leo asked hopefully.

He didn't like putting something so technologically fascinating and advanced on the same level as a bad 70's sitcom but Donnie digressed. "Well, basically the end result is the same!" He bit her lower lip a moment, eyes drawn to the back of Inali's neck longingly. "I wish I could get my hands on it and figure out how it works! The implications of a translator being implemented back on earth would be invaluable!"

"Try to contain your geek-out until we're all back home safely." Leo advised.

They all looked out into the room. Others were getting theirs as they spoke with similar struggles and slowly, the indistinguishable sounds of alien language were becoming something far more familiar! Odd sounds and vocal patterns slowly melted into clear, if not heavily accented, English.

The sweet melody of his native language was all Leo needed to hear to know they had to press for more answers. "Look, Inali was it?" She nodded, one ear drooping, bemused. "You and some of the others seem to know what's going on here but my brothers and I are struggling to get a complete picture."

"If you can shed any light on what's going on, it'd be of great help." Don agreed.

It looked like the fox girl was bristling, her untamed red hair and fur seeming to lift as she made an agitated pout.

"You want to fight the Terrack, but you do not know what the Terrack is?" Her speaking was a bit broken and of a strange accent, lacking the conjunctions that simplified the English language to those more familiar with it. Her tail lashed once behind her and her brow lowered worrisomely over her bold yellow gaze. "How does one not know of the Terrack?"

Leo piped up. "Let's just say if they've been to our Planet this is the first we've known about it."

Mikey stated the obvious question, craning his neck out of his booth to see her. "So the Terrack. Who are those guys? The robots we saw?"

"Or the one who programmed them?" Donnie offered.

Inali shook her head in the negative, her eyes looking a touch glassy for but a moment before her defiance overshadowed it. "Terrack are Hunters. Not as I am a hunter not as they." She gestured to the others in the room. "We hunt for our sustenance and to fill our bodies with the joy of meat! The Terrack hunt not for need, but for enjoyment. To feel power and superior over all others. They rape the mind and pillage the spirit and only when the prey does crumble do they destroy the body." Her ears flattened against her head and she glowered at the four brothers spitefully. "They pervert the hunt and prey on the innocent. There is no mercy, compassion, or need to their hunt. They are without honor!"

"I'm confused." Mikey said slowly, concentration gleaming in his cerulean eyes. "They're going around and drugging people? Putting them in here? Doesn't really seem like a hunt to me."

"The hunt has not yet begun." She explained. "We have been collected, not loosed."

Revelation dawned in Donatello's eyes, and he quickly explained, "Oh I get it! This is just like Richard Connell's short story, 'The Most Dangerous Game'!"

"Care to enlighten the rest of us?" Raphael pressed.

Nodding, Don explained excitedly. "It's a very famous short story from the nineteen twenties about a big game hunter that get's stranded on an island in the Caribbean! As it turns out, the island is owned and inhabited by a fellow big game hunter by the name of Zaroff, who uses his island as an arena to hunt down stranded sailors like wild game, even providing them with supplies and a three hour head start! The premise is that Zaroff actually had succeeded in hunting so many dangerous animals that he felt the only real challenge left for him was to hunt people!"

"Dude, don't sound so excited, you're about to live that story." Leonardo said with a scowl, trying to keep him grounded.

"Please tell me that Zaroff guy got what was coming to him." Mikey pleaded as he once more took stock of the conditions they were in. "I could really use good news right now."

Don laughed nervously. "Well, it's not that simple to explain. One of the beauties about this story in particular was its open ending. It eludes to the fact that Zaroff was defeated but there's a great deal left up to interpretation and ones imagination. It's actually quite the literary masterpiece-"

"I choose to belief Zaroff got raped in the ass with his hunting rifle," Raph muttered graphically, "-because that's what I plan on doing to the bastards who put us here as soon as they turn me loose."

That earned a yip of approval from Inali. "You four have fight and look to be great warriors! And Raphiel-"

He cringed when she mispronounced his name again and quickly corrected her "Raphael."

"Raphiel." She repeated without success.

"No, Raff-aye-elle!" He ground out with increasing volume.

She wrinkled her nose. "Raff-eye- eal!" She barked back.

The two glared each other down, the staring contest only broken when Leo chuckled at his brothers annoyance. "You can't be mad Raph. Translator or not, there are still going to be nuances between how we speak."

"It's true Raph." Donnie assured, "That accent's pretty thick. There's going to be some syllables her tongue isn't used to making."

"Well it's damn annoying!" He said gruffly, his own Brooklyn drawl tainting his words.

Inali turned her nose up, looking away with a saucy huff. Her pupils were dilated angrily and her tail was lashing wantonly. Unfortunately, while she was attempting to look displeased, she simply looked like an obstinate child who wasn't getting their way.

"I had intended on offering my thanks to Raphiel for trying so valiantly on my behalf when the sentries came for me." She paused to glare coldly at the red masked mutant, "-but now one must wonder if it were bravery or sheer stupidity that drove you to injure yourself so."

"Oh I like her." Leo said through a laugh, drawing Raphs displeased scowl.

"Hard to get insulted when it's coming from a pup like you." Raph jeered in return.

That struck a raw nerve and, incensed, Inali's eyes grew wide and all the hair on her tail and ears stood on end!

"Pup? I am no 'pup' you-you-" She stomped her feet a few times, caught mid tantrum with her face twisted up in a very unflattering expression. "You remarkably ugly pond slug!"

"Aww, how cute! The Pup is trying to bark!" Raphael leaned in and made beckoning smooching noises at her. "C'mere little puppy!"

She squealed angrily and Donnie sighed. "We're not getting anywhere with this."

Leo shrugged. "Yeah maybe, but you've gotta admit, this is pretty entertaining."

Donnie had to smile. "She really doesn't insult very well does she."

"Maybe she just needs more practice." Mikey belly laughed as Inali began barking loudly at their brother, so lost in her aggression that she had regressed into the one thing she could think to do. "It's still managing to get under Raphs skin though."

"Or maybe some of the wit is lost in translation?" Donnie thought aloud.

"Or maybe she just sucks at it." Leo said bluntly, but grinned just the same. "If she weren't so small I'd say her anger would be intimidating but like this it's just...well...it's-"

"Cute." Mikey finished shamelessly. "Just say it, she's too cute! It's like that time we stopped that Kraang bot in an alleyway and disturbed those kittens under the dumpster."

Donnie had to nod in agreement, shaking his head sympathetically at the girl trying to go toe to toe with the force of nature that is Raphael. "Yeah. Watching a tiny kitten hiss is hardly frightening. I see the correlation."

"Definitely triggers the 'awww' reflex, dude."

"Does she even know how small she is?" Leo wondered aloud. "I almost feel bad for her."

"Well, seeing as she is canine in nature, drawing from experience small dogs tend not to know their size in comparison to large ones."

Leo groaned a bit as Raph further mocked their alien ally by asking if she wanted to sniff his ass. "This is embarrassing." He looked to Donnie for help. "We should stop this."

"Come on guys." Mikey said kindly, his pure and clear eyes watching with ease the fight continue. "From the way it sounds, we're about to face some pretty hard shit, right? I say let's just enjoy a few minutes of peace before we don't have it anymore."

The affectionate smile that crossed Leonardo's face was reply enough. Sometimes Michelangelo's carefree nature dangerously bordered on the reckless and there were many times he wondered if their most innocent brother could grasp the gravity of some of the situations they found themselves in. Then, there were times like this when he'd say something so profoundly wise that he wished he could see life through those clear untainted eyes. Mikey may choose not to to bog himself down with excessive worry or stress, but he dealt with tense situations with blinding optimism. He wished more and more as they grew older that he could emulate that attitude. In the end, he knew it would make him a better leader.

"You're right, bro." He said warmly, wishing he could give his little brother a noogie. This was the calm before the storm. What was the harm in watching lightning strike a few times before they dug in their heals to weather it out.


End file.
